Jill Schany
Emmetsburg High School
Emmetsburg, Iowa
NBEA 2011
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Textbook: Law for Business and Personal Use
o 15th Edition
o Published in 2000
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Questions from Students
Location, location, location!
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Know your administrator
o Open lines of communication
o Open invitation to view
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Know your parents
o Communicate your intentions and objectives with parents
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Know your kids
o Parents and student sign
o Code of Conduct
Created a wiki through Wikispaces
 Address:
http://businesslawresources.wikispaces.com
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 Many
resources
referred to within our
presentation
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Fundamental for analytical thinking
Writing assignments:
o Legal Brief/Memo
• Samples:
• Legal Brief (How To)
• Law and the Media Sample
o Student Samples
• Student Sample 1 Legal Memo
• Student Sample 2 Legal Memo
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Compare and Contrast
Paper
o Compare a Supreme
Court case with a more
current case
o Example: Tinker v. Des
Moines and Bretton
Barber v. Dearborn Public
Schools
• Two cases, one from the
1960’s and one from
2003
• Illustrates to students that
“old” court cases set
precedent for legal action
in the United States
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From Google Scholar
http://scholar.google.com/sch
olar_case?case=1304226652
3220645414&q=bretton+barb
er&hl=en&as_sdt=2,11
Located on wiki under Writing
Opportunities
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Provides students with “real life” examples
o Local county court in Emmetsburg
o Small town
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Choice of movies
o Student interest survey
o Topic at hand
o Consider the objective
• Is your objective to analyze the argument?
• Is your objective to apply it to a scenario?
Example: Closing Arguments—A Time to Kill
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Reading is the focus of our district
o Each teacher, in all content areas, required to present and
document reading strategies
o The only way to get improve reading is to read more.
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My philosophy of supplemental reading
o Student choice
o Building background knowledge
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How do you assess this?
o Have students write “sworn statements” from the viewpoint of a
character
o Create a trial timeline or event timeline with specific terms and
situations defined
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Discussion of reading is critical
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Chapter 1, The Firm by John Grisham
Unit: Ethics in Law
o Corresponds to specific chapter in our text
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Objectives of book study:
o Identify and define legal terms
o Relate the situation in the book to a real life situation that is in the
news and/or the newspaper
o Determine the motive for the actions of each character in the book
o Write a legal opinion regarding the actions of one of the main
character in the book and identify motives (with support), justify his
or her actions, and rule on whether or not he or she was ethical in
his or her actions
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Pick three or four amendments or issues
I prefer Street Law for the unit on Constitutional Law
o Lesson plans
o Background information
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Street Law: Tinker v. Des Moines
Background Information by Reading Level
Lesson Plans and Time Needed
www.streetlaw.org
Click on Teaching tab
Assignment
Go to StreetLaw.org site
Select Background
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Adapted from streetlaw.org
Landmark Case Assignment
Tinker v. Des Moines
Mapp v. Ohio
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Rely on resources: family,
friends, alums
Sean Solberg
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Attorney at Faegre and
Benson in Minneapolis
Specializes in Intellectual
Property
Loves the opportunity to
visit his former high school
Taught a three day course
in intellectual property to
our students via Skype
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Anatomy of a Trial
o The Mark Becker Trial in Iowa
• Becker shot his high school football coach
• Trial focused on the insanity defense
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Family Law
o I Am Sam
o Why teach family law?
• Almost all students will be married at some point
• Statistics say that half will be divorced
• It correlates nicely with contract law.
Business Law
 Make
the topic more interesting and inviting
 Illustrates the uses of law
o How law affects every day life
o How law affects you personally
 More
interaction and collaboration
Contact Information
 If
you have any questions, please contact
me:
o Jill Schany, Emmetsburg High School
o jschany@emmetsburg.k12.ia.us